note: i would like to personally thank rydia (or VWL as you may know her...) for her support and encouragement on this fic. honestly, i doubt i would have been pouring so much effort into it if it wasn't for her. so, a shout out. X3 to rydia. because she keeps me up all night writing. kyaaa. visit her Zack shrine at http://www.houjun.com/zack/
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The winds were the most dangerous thing that existed in their world. At the breaking of dawn and the setting of the sun, uncontrollable gales would rip over the land, knocking down anything that could not stand to their force. Trees in the flatlands were stunted, the very curvature of the mountains shaped by the winds. Forests were rooted and gnarled in ways to avoid being torn away, and the creatures were all proficant in ways to avoid the deadly gusts.
Night winds, from the West, tore a new hole through the heart of the land, freezing and falling into darkness as they went. Dragons were the only ones with no fear of the Winds, their bodies at high tempuratures capable of withstanding anything the Winds could dish out. However, the other races were vulnerable to the frigid blast, and had to seek their shelters. The wind would only last a few moments, but it was easily enough to freeze a being to death. Theories on the origins of the Winds stretched as far back through time as the histories of the Races themselves, and there was no explanation yet. The furthest West one could travel on foot was not far enough to find the source.
Legend said that the cold wind was the Sun being blown out by the stars, and would be lit again in the morning each day.
The first icey lickings of the Night Wind ruffled the grasses around the Hedgehog and Bird's bodies as they pushed their way slowly across the field to the Dragon City. Zack, limping and half blinded, could feel the impending dread growing inside his chest. They would probably be able to reach the gates, despite his pace. The problem was being let inside. If there was even a night guard, they might be unwilling to let the two beings enter. Neither Birds nor Hedgehogs were particularly favoured by the reptilian race...in fact, none of the other races were a favourite of the Dragons. And so the stalling at the Gate could mean they would find no protection from the winds.
One of them would survive the Night Wind, Zack was positive of this fact. Every being, every race, every person from the day of their birth had been told over and over what to do if you were caught by the wind. To seek protection under something, or to give protection to someone else. He cast a quick glance back at the Bird, dizzying himself with the faulty perception and gritting his teeth as pain lunged into his body from his leg. There was no doubt what the Bird's reaction would be. To survive. And, even if he knew this, Zack understood that it was his nature to save the Bird.
Hopping awkwardly behind, the Avian's gaze remained impassive. Despite their conversations, the Bird was as distant as when they'd first met, but less hostile. He was unlike the rest of his race, although Zack couldn't be sure if that was the natural way for the Bird, or if it was something he was only adapting towards. In truth, the Bird himself wasn't certain either, but was unwilling to question his way of existing.
The Dragon city gate was within reach now, hulking and casting narrow shadows across the grasses. When Zack's free claws brushed forward to push the tall grass out of the way and recieved no resistance, felt a surge of both relief and terror. The tall grass might have protected them from the wind, if they had been smart about it. But the distance between the gate and where the grass grew thickly was too far to flee once the winds began their assault. They were too near now to give up, though, and he knew it. The half-blind Hedgehog pushed through the rest of the grass, determined, but a sharp pain in his shoulder held him back. Yelping and swatting with his free claw, he felt it impact with flesh.
Shaking his head and making a hissing sound between his teeth, the Bird let go where had bitten Zack and ruffled his feathers. "You may not see it, but there's something headed this way."
Zack's spikes raised off his back nervously, the claw over his eye twitching against his skin. He couldn't fight with only one hand and one eye, and even without the handicap, Hedgehogs were not known to be warriors. He crouched down into the tall grasses and pulled his knees tight against his chest, trying to see into the darkness surrounding the gate with only one eye.
"Use your other senses," The Bird offered casually, lowering himself down beside the Hedgehog and tucking under his legs and wings. The golden Avian's feathers rustled slightly with the onset of the Winds, but he seemed to not notice. Zack sighed deeply and strained to do as the Bird had told him. His voice now a whisper, barely auidable over the rustling of the grasses, the Bird continued speaking. "It's a Feline, a merchant, I think. Something doesn't seem right about this. Can you see him yet? Smell him?"
Faintly on the winds was the musky wet smell of a Feline, of fur and saliva. The lithe race of magicians and tricksters were not trustworthy, but were masters of any knowleges generally marked with 'forbidden.' Yes, Zack could smell him. He could see the Feline slightly now too, the edges of its body standing out along the dark stone face of the wall. He could hear him, the crackling sound the Feline's paws made when they touched down on the cut grasses around the gate. But most importantly, completely beyond ignoring, Zack could feel him.
It was like a thunderclap each time the Feline lifted one paw from the ground, the sense of detatchment. Like the rumbling of a drum on stage, the feeling reverbrated in Zack's chest and throat, ran circles around his head. There was no mistaking it. "He's got one of the Stones," the Hedgehog whispered.
The Avian said nothing, but rocked from foot to foot in his nest, raising his head to look beyond the grasses at the Feline. He could feel nothing in the way Zack could, but he understood that there were also things the Hedgehog could not see or sense about him. So he did not doubt.
"I've never felt Matter acting like this...It doesn't do this underground," Zack murmured to himself as the Feline drew closer to the grasses, a cape drawn over its shoulders moving out behind him. Feline magic, the cape had to be, to protect him from the Winds.
The Bird lowered his head dangerously, snakelike, following the Feline with cold eyes. "With the Striped Ones? Was it like this then?"
"No, but it's a Stone. I've got to get it away-" He struggled to stand, only to find himself blocked as the Bird stood, his wings splayed towards the ground as a barrier. The icey eyes glared at him, now.
"You can't see. Wait," he said simply, and crouched low in the grass.
The Feline, for all his magic, could neither smell nor sense either of the creatures waiting for him in the tall grass. Having come directly from the Dragon city gates, he was still reliant on the daytime senses of sight. Felines experienced none of the visual impairment of night, and so were very visual creatures. But the Bird, crouched below the surface of the grassy fields, was invisable to the traveling Feline.
His mind was on other things, even if he had caught the glimpse of gold in the fields. What he had come to trade to the Dragons was something their pitiful minds could hardly understand. It was a technology that the Angels were all too willing to accept, to pay for, to improve themselves with. The Felines had been the first to discover it- to discover that the presence of a Matter crystal in machines could change almost anything. The very existance of Matter crystals in the material world could warp already existing things- reality would become putty, to those who could properly manipulate it. But the Dragons, bullheaded and determined to be the last standing race in their own way, had refused to open their gates to him.
Such was their own loss, the Feline thought, his tail lashing behind his cape. A few more steps and he'd be in the grasses, ready to bed down. His cape, his fur, all made him imprevious to those Winds the other species feared so desperately. Already the Feline could feel the soft grasses under himself. In the morning, after the Warm Winds passed through, he would journey back to his encampment. The other races were too primative to appriciate that which they had invented.
That was the last thought that went through the Feline's mind before he reached the grasses. The Bird struck from below, his claws sinking into the Feline's legs and dragging him down. With the warrior presicion only a survivalist race could have, the Bird tore at the Feline's body with one hindclaw while holding his neck down against the ground with the other. Talons wrapped menacingly around the furred creature's throat, and the Bird hissed.
The Feline did not understand his language, but he didn't need to. Robbery while travelling was common, and the Feline hurried with the knot on the bag that hung at his waist, dumping the contents clumsily out onto his stomach as the Bird dug claws deeper into his flesh. He would have cried, would have yowled or gasped or pleeded, but the Bird was crushing his windpipe between its talons. Tears began to streak the Feline's fur, the Winds growing more intense and ruffling the Bird's feathers violently until they nearly stood on end. From the grass to the side, the Feline thought he heard something make a muted sound of pain. Eyes rolling to the side, he just barely caught sight of something doubled over and glaring from between the tall stalks of grass.
The feeling of a wingtip sweeping across his stomach made the Feline revert his gaze to the attacking Bird, but the sudden cold and sting on his gut pulled at his eyes, although he could not see. With fumbling paws, the Feline ran his hands over his fur, finding it slick and warm. Pain was slithering down into his stomach now, spreading through his body in a slow realization. Eyes rolled halfway back, he could see the Bird's sickening grin staring down at him. For an agonizing moment, the Bird's free leg lifted into the air, and the Feline thought perhaps the Avian was planning on flying away. Stupid, irrational hope, and the Feline knew it.
The Bird's foot decended like a gilloutine, raking into the cut his wings had left, claws curling under the skin and ripping backwards as the Bird gave a sharp kick. Blood spattered the avian's scaled ankles and the Feline thrashed under his grip, but had no sound to make. Another raking of his claws, and the thrashing was growing more muted. When the Feline had gone completely still, the golden Avian paused a moment and studied his prey before giving a series of extra rakings along the already torn apart gut. With a final snort of disdain, his claws unhooked from around the dead Feline's windpipe, and the Bird stepped away from the corpse. Hunting doubled over in the darkness, the Bird found the contents of the Feline's pouch with his talons and clipped them down around the prize. Zack had been right, it was a stone, but different from the one used by the Striped Ones.
Lifting his face to the air, the Bird felt the first of the Wind's serious blasts strike his feathers, his plumage instinctively fluffing up against the cold. Crystals formed against his lashes, and when the Bird breathed out now, his breath became a thin line of steam. In the grass, huddled, injured and half blind, the Hedgehog grunted in pain again. Hobbling forward with the stone clutched under his hindclaw, the Bird lowered himself down beside Zack again, depositing the stone at his side.
"There."
The Hedgehog glowered through his good eye, shivering violently, whispy breath hissing between his teeth like a deformed parody of the Dragons. "What's the point if I'm just going to die for you in the next two minutes?"
There was no ready answer from the Bird, his head turned towards the direction of the Winds and feathers fluffed against his body. For a precious second as the Winds began to pick up, he said nothing. Then, abruptly, "Roll yourself up in the grasses. It'll protect you."
Zack knew better than to argue with one of the Birds on survival, and reached up awkwardly with his free hand to pull a handful of stalks down around him. The Bird, feathers fluffed outwards, side-stepped awkwardly towards the Hedgehog and reached upwards, taking a bundle of the stalks in his mouth and pulling them downwards. Lowering himself down beside Zack, the Avian reached over and did his best to push down the grasses. The plants were a coccoon around the two creatures, both now curled tightly together and against eachother, watching their breath hiss outwards and away as the Winds began to roar overhead.
"We'll still be cold. But this'll last the Winds. We have to get inside after that, though," Zack could hear the conflict in the Bird's voice. "That's up to you to do."
The Hedgehog nodded, his teeth chattering in the cold. With his free claw, he reached out and rolled the Stone over on the ground, feeling the same thunderous tearing sensation each time it moved. The Winds ripped through the grasses around them, the entire feild seeming to bend and throw itself in all directions. At length, the cold air calmed and began to fade. The Bird was the first to move, rising up on his legs and shaking the grasses off himself. Zack, still shivering, uncoiled and shook his spikes, the grasses springing back upwards.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" He watched the stoic Avian quietly, propping himself up on one arm. There was still pain creeping around through his leg, but it seemed to have calmed down since they'd stopped moving.
Adjusting his wings against his back, the Bird looked out towards the Dragon city as he spoke. "All Birds know how to do it. We're born into it."
"But Birds never share that kind of stuff with other races, you've always kept to yourselves." Wincing, he tucked his legs under himself and stood. "Why are you helping me?" The Bird lowered his head, stepping backwards through the grasses with his wings hunched oddly, but said nothing. Zack sighed, shaking his head. "I guess that's just how it is, huh?"
"You said yourself, there is always a set of prints in the snow."
Damn, The Hedgehog set his teeth, regretting what he'd said before. The last thing he needs is to get the delusions fourteen year olds do, and think we 'belong' together... "Look, you'll know when you find the person you've got to be with. That doesn't mean it's me. Live for yourself, okay?"
The avian snorted and pushed through the grasses towards the city. "That's not our nature."
"Saving complete strangers is?" Zack stumbled through the darkness, his feet hitting the dried dirt outside of the grasses with a hollow thudding sound. The night was clear now, without the Winds, and the moon reflected down on the Bird's backside, shimmering off the dark smears on his hindclaws. Clenched in the Hedgehog's claws, the Stone seemed to have stopped its ceaseless pounding at being taken from the earth, and now lay quiet and cold. The Bird was offering no reply. Sighing, Zack looked up from the ground to the avian. "Haven't you got a name?"
A quiver ran along the Bird's feathers, raising them in a wave. "People like me don't have them."
Zack snorted, catching up to the Bird who stood, stopped in the clearing before the gate. "That's bull. I'm not going to just keep calling you 'Bird' all the time. And you had to have a name at some point. Even Birds use names."
"It doesn't belong to me anymore," He paused, gazing over his shoulder. "Why do I need one, anyway? I don't call you by your name."
The Hedgehog rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration, standing beside the Bird. There was a sort of pathetic lethargy to the avian's voice when he spoke about his species, but there was no way that Zack could know why. "We've been in the middle of nowhere for three days, and we're the only people here. 'Course you don't use my name here. But we're going in there," He waved a claw at the gates, which loomed like a tunnel in front of them, the wood black under the wan light. "There's going to be Dragons everywhere, and you're we're going to need to be able to get eacother's attention." The Bird's eyes glinted at him, but still no reply. "Fine, I'll give you one then."
Feathers fluffed on end at that. "You can't just give someone another name, that's just not-"
"You said you haven't got one anymore, and I'm not going to just keep calling you 'you.' So deal with it." He looked upwards, towards the moon that stood bulky in the sky, blue-white like a saucer. "It's a clear night...How do Birds name eachother?" The Avian shrugged his feathers, taking awkward steps forward as the Hedgehog walked. "Not going to tell me, huh? Well...You believe in meaningful names, right?" Another shrug, and silence. "How about Cloud?"
The Bird lowered his head and looked away towards the grasses surrounding them, sighing in defeat. "Fine...I don't care."
Zack couldn't help but smile slightly to himself as they approuched the gate, the Bird was such a strange creature. They weren't the same race, he was going to have to remember, or it was going to continue to smack him upside the head when he wasn't looking in that direction. The races kept primarily to themselves, and it was only extreme situations- or extreme weirdos- that crossed the cultural taboos. Right now, Zack wasn't exactly sure which he was...but the Bird seemed to be driven by something else.
Although too large to open on their own, the gate was locked and guarded after the night Winds tore through. The Hedgehog and the Bird had only to reach the solid weatherbeaten surface before a spurt of fire from above warned them back. Zack, hand still clasped over his eye, reached out and caught a handful of the feathers along Cloud's back, steadying himself as he backpedaled. The Stone intertwined between fingers and plumage, digging into his palm. Pacing atop the wall, smoke curling from her lips, a dragon lashed her tail at them both angrily. Her eyes followed them as she stalked back and forth, the moon reflecting off her nigh-silver scales.
"The gate's closed, go back."
Zack could feel the Bird shrinking backwards, trying to pull out from under his grip and retreat. He tightened his claws and looked up, teeth gritted. "This is an emergency, there's something strange going on out in the woods-"
The Dragon snorted, a small spurt of flame licking from her nostrils. "Strange? I'll say. A Bird and a Hedgehog, crawling around after the Winds, a hundred miles from any shelter? What kind of magic are you playing at, Mud Worm?" She twirled the strange bladed weapon held in her claws, and pointed it at them. Cloud shrunk further against the Hedgehog's side.
Zack felt his spikes raise up in response to the Dragon's insult. "Look, you idiotic Fire Lizard, maybe you don't see danger when it's staring you in the face, but the Striped Ones are out there with something that's got great power," He ignored the fact that the Dragon had stopped pacing, and was now standing, her eyes slitted and smoke billowing from her nostrils with each breath. "More power than you stupid Dragons understand. They're going to abuse the hell out of it and come for you too, unless you do some-"
The Dragon guard had had enough of the Hedgehog's inconsiquential ramblings. With a sound like leather being whipped taut in the wind, her wings spread and the Saurian leapt from the wall, diving down towards the intruders with her weapon clutched at her underside, a trained formation.
Blue light shattered the night air. Bright and burning as the winter sun off the snow, it exploded from within Zack's clenched hand and expanded outwards in a dome. Cloud let out a shriek, tried to tear away, but Zack's claws held their grip and the Avian could only stumble and slip, hitting the ground with a rough thud. Flying headlong into the light, the Dragon was bowled backwards, blinded and singed. The light, as spontaniously as it had chosen to appear, began to drift apart like fog clearing in the sunlight, slowly leaving the air dark until it was gone. The ground at Zack's feet was left raked and smoothed by the untouchable force, he and the Bird at the epicenter. He could see the Dragon struggling to right herself against the wall, her arm held against her eyes and cloths singed black. Cloud was at his feet, half fallen, panting hard.
Between the Bird's back and his claws, the Terra Stone was humming violently enough that he could feel it reverbrating through his claws and deep into his spine. He was certain the Bird could feel it as well.
There was a wet sound as the Dragon spit, black saliva smearing the ground. A hand still sheilding her eyes, she looked at the fallen Bird and the half-blind Hedgehog. "What...what did you do?"
Zack's eye was burning, paining him like small slivers of metal slowly burrowing into his flesh. The vibrating of the Stone only made it worse, and his voice showed it, ragged and course. "It's what the Striped Ones have," he growled at her.
The Dragon inched along the wall, her spine flat against the blocks and hand still against her eyes, wings crunched awkwardly. Her voice was shaken. With her left clawed hand, she scratched an erratic series on the wood of the door before letting her arm fall. "The Dragon Council," she rasped at them. "You'll be taken to see our Council."
Muscle strung out over a skeleton, a golem with no soul and no existance beyond that of its command would have made a sound more welcoming than the deep, screeching squeal of the gate's hinges. The sound pushed past teeth, down the throat on needle sharp nails and slithered through the stomach before it ended. Beyond the gate, eyeless faces in the night light, the buildings of the Dragon city gaped blindly at the Hedgehog and Bird as they staggered slowly over the threshhold and entered a foreign land.
The winds were the most dangerous thing that existed in their world. At the breaking of dawn and the setting of the sun, uncontrollable gales would rip over the land, knocking down anything that could not stand to their force. Trees in the flatlands were stunted, the very curvature of the mountains shaped by the winds. Forests were rooted and gnarled in ways to avoid being torn away, and the creatures were all proficant in ways to avoid the deadly gusts.
Night winds, from the West, tore a new hole through the heart of the land, freezing and falling into darkness as they went. Dragons were the only ones with no fear of the Winds, their bodies at high tempuratures capable of withstanding anything the Winds could dish out. However, the other races were vulnerable to the frigid blast, and had to seek their shelters. The wind would only last a few moments, but it was easily enough to freeze a being to death. Theories on the origins of the Winds stretched as far back through time as the histories of the Races themselves, and there was no explanation yet. The furthest West one could travel on foot was not far enough to find the source.
Legend said that the cold wind was the Sun being blown out by the stars, and would be lit again in the morning each day.
The first icey lickings of the Night Wind ruffled the grasses around the Hedgehog and Bird's bodies as they pushed their way slowly across the field to the Dragon City. Zack, limping and half blinded, could feel the impending dread growing inside his chest. They would probably be able to reach the gates, despite his pace. The problem was being let inside. If there was even a night guard, they might be unwilling to let the two beings enter. Neither Birds nor Hedgehogs were particularly favoured by the reptilian race...in fact, none of the other races were a favourite of the Dragons. And so the stalling at the Gate could mean they would find no protection from the winds.
One of them would survive the Night Wind, Zack was positive of this fact. Every being, every race, every person from the day of their birth had been told over and over what to do if you were caught by the wind. To seek protection under something, or to give protection to someone else. He cast a quick glance back at the Bird, dizzying himself with the faulty perception and gritting his teeth as pain lunged into his body from his leg. There was no doubt what the Bird's reaction would be. To survive. And, even if he knew this, Zack understood that it was his nature to save the Bird.
Hopping awkwardly behind, the Avian's gaze remained impassive. Despite their conversations, the Bird was as distant as when they'd first met, but less hostile. He was unlike the rest of his race, although Zack couldn't be sure if that was the natural way for the Bird, or if it was something he was only adapting towards. In truth, the Bird himself wasn't certain either, but was unwilling to question his way of existing.
The Dragon city gate was within reach now, hulking and casting narrow shadows across the grasses. When Zack's free claws brushed forward to push the tall grass out of the way and recieved no resistance, felt a surge of both relief and terror. The tall grass might have protected them from the wind, if they had been smart about it. But the distance between the gate and where the grass grew thickly was too far to flee once the winds began their assault. They were too near now to give up, though, and he knew it. The half-blind Hedgehog pushed through the rest of the grass, determined, but a sharp pain in his shoulder held him back. Yelping and swatting with his free claw, he felt it impact with flesh.
Shaking his head and making a hissing sound between his teeth, the Bird let go where had bitten Zack and ruffled his feathers. "You may not see it, but there's something headed this way."
Zack's spikes raised off his back nervously, the claw over his eye twitching against his skin. He couldn't fight with only one hand and one eye, and even without the handicap, Hedgehogs were not known to be warriors. He crouched down into the tall grasses and pulled his knees tight against his chest, trying to see into the darkness surrounding the gate with only one eye.
"Use your other senses," The Bird offered casually, lowering himself down beside the Hedgehog and tucking under his legs and wings. The golden Avian's feathers rustled slightly with the onset of the Winds, but he seemed to not notice. Zack sighed deeply and strained to do as the Bird had told him. His voice now a whisper, barely auidable over the rustling of the grasses, the Bird continued speaking. "It's a Feline, a merchant, I think. Something doesn't seem right about this. Can you see him yet? Smell him?"
Faintly on the winds was the musky wet smell of a Feline, of fur and saliva. The lithe race of magicians and tricksters were not trustworthy, but were masters of any knowleges generally marked with 'forbidden.' Yes, Zack could smell him. He could see the Feline slightly now too, the edges of its body standing out along the dark stone face of the wall. He could hear him, the crackling sound the Feline's paws made when they touched down on the cut grasses around the gate. But most importantly, completely beyond ignoring, Zack could feel him.
It was like a thunderclap each time the Feline lifted one paw from the ground, the sense of detatchment. Like the rumbling of a drum on stage, the feeling reverbrated in Zack's chest and throat, ran circles around his head. There was no mistaking it. "He's got one of the Stones," the Hedgehog whispered.
The Avian said nothing, but rocked from foot to foot in his nest, raising his head to look beyond the grasses at the Feline. He could feel nothing in the way Zack could, but he understood that there were also things the Hedgehog could not see or sense about him. So he did not doubt.
"I've never felt Matter acting like this...It doesn't do this underground," Zack murmured to himself as the Feline drew closer to the grasses, a cape drawn over its shoulders moving out behind him. Feline magic, the cape had to be, to protect him from the Winds.
The Bird lowered his head dangerously, snakelike, following the Feline with cold eyes. "With the Striped Ones? Was it like this then?"
"No, but it's a Stone. I've got to get it away-" He struggled to stand, only to find himself blocked as the Bird stood, his wings splayed towards the ground as a barrier. The icey eyes glared at him, now.
"You can't see. Wait," he said simply, and crouched low in the grass.
The Feline, for all his magic, could neither smell nor sense either of the creatures waiting for him in the tall grass. Having come directly from the Dragon city gates, he was still reliant on the daytime senses of sight. Felines experienced none of the visual impairment of night, and so were very visual creatures. But the Bird, crouched below the surface of the grassy fields, was invisable to the traveling Feline.
His mind was on other things, even if he had caught the glimpse of gold in the fields. What he had come to trade to the Dragons was something their pitiful minds could hardly understand. It was a technology that the Angels were all too willing to accept, to pay for, to improve themselves with. The Felines had been the first to discover it- to discover that the presence of a Matter crystal in machines could change almost anything. The very existance of Matter crystals in the material world could warp already existing things- reality would become putty, to those who could properly manipulate it. But the Dragons, bullheaded and determined to be the last standing race in their own way, had refused to open their gates to him.
Such was their own loss, the Feline thought, his tail lashing behind his cape. A few more steps and he'd be in the grasses, ready to bed down. His cape, his fur, all made him imprevious to those Winds the other species feared so desperately. Already the Feline could feel the soft grasses under himself. In the morning, after the Warm Winds passed through, he would journey back to his encampment. The other races were too primative to appriciate that which they had invented.
That was the last thought that went through the Feline's mind before he reached the grasses. The Bird struck from below, his claws sinking into the Feline's legs and dragging him down. With the warrior presicion only a survivalist race could have, the Bird tore at the Feline's body with one hindclaw while holding his neck down against the ground with the other. Talons wrapped menacingly around the furred creature's throat, and the Bird hissed.
The Feline did not understand his language, but he didn't need to. Robbery while travelling was common, and the Feline hurried with the knot on the bag that hung at his waist, dumping the contents clumsily out onto his stomach as the Bird dug claws deeper into his flesh. He would have cried, would have yowled or gasped or pleeded, but the Bird was crushing his windpipe between its talons. Tears began to streak the Feline's fur, the Winds growing more intense and ruffling the Bird's feathers violently until they nearly stood on end. From the grass to the side, the Feline thought he heard something make a muted sound of pain. Eyes rolling to the side, he just barely caught sight of something doubled over and glaring from between the tall stalks of grass.
The feeling of a wingtip sweeping across his stomach made the Feline revert his gaze to the attacking Bird, but the sudden cold and sting on his gut pulled at his eyes, although he could not see. With fumbling paws, the Feline ran his hands over his fur, finding it slick and warm. Pain was slithering down into his stomach now, spreading through his body in a slow realization. Eyes rolled halfway back, he could see the Bird's sickening grin staring down at him. For an agonizing moment, the Bird's free leg lifted into the air, and the Feline thought perhaps the Avian was planning on flying away. Stupid, irrational hope, and the Feline knew it.
The Bird's foot decended like a gilloutine, raking into the cut his wings had left, claws curling under the skin and ripping backwards as the Bird gave a sharp kick. Blood spattered the avian's scaled ankles and the Feline thrashed under his grip, but had no sound to make. Another raking of his claws, and the thrashing was growing more muted. When the Feline had gone completely still, the golden Avian paused a moment and studied his prey before giving a series of extra rakings along the already torn apart gut. With a final snort of disdain, his claws unhooked from around the dead Feline's windpipe, and the Bird stepped away from the corpse. Hunting doubled over in the darkness, the Bird found the contents of the Feline's pouch with his talons and clipped them down around the prize. Zack had been right, it was a stone, but different from the one used by the Striped Ones.
Lifting his face to the air, the Bird felt the first of the Wind's serious blasts strike his feathers, his plumage instinctively fluffing up against the cold. Crystals formed against his lashes, and when the Bird breathed out now, his breath became a thin line of steam. In the grass, huddled, injured and half blind, the Hedgehog grunted in pain again. Hobbling forward with the stone clutched under his hindclaw, the Bird lowered himself down beside Zack again, depositing the stone at his side.
"There."
The Hedgehog glowered through his good eye, shivering violently, whispy breath hissing between his teeth like a deformed parody of the Dragons. "What's the point if I'm just going to die for you in the next two minutes?"
There was no ready answer from the Bird, his head turned towards the direction of the Winds and feathers fluffed against his body. For a precious second as the Winds began to pick up, he said nothing. Then, abruptly, "Roll yourself up in the grasses. It'll protect you."
Zack knew better than to argue with one of the Birds on survival, and reached up awkwardly with his free hand to pull a handful of stalks down around him. The Bird, feathers fluffed outwards, side-stepped awkwardly towards the Hedgehog and reached upwards, taking a bundle of the stalks in his mouth and pulling them downwards. Lowering himself down beside Zack, the Avian reached over and did his best to push down the grasses. The plants were a coccoon around the two creatures, both now curled tightly together and against eachother, watching their breath hiss outwards and away as the Winds began to roar overhead.
"We'll still be cold. But this'll last the Winds. We have to get inside after that, though," Zack could hear the conflict in the Bird's voice. "That's up to you to do."
The Hedgehog nodded, his teeth chattering in the cold. With his free claw, he reached out and rolled the Stone over on the ground, feeling the same thunderous tearing sensation each time it moved. The Winds ripped through the grasses around them, the entire feild seeming to bend and throw itself in all directions. At length, the cold air calmed and began to fade. The Bird was the first to move, rising up on his legs and shaking the grasses off himself. Zack, still shivering, uncoiled and shook his spikes, the grasses springing back upwards.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" He watched the stoic Avian quietly, propping himself up on one arm. There was still pain creeping around through his leg, but it seemed to have calmed down since they'd stopped moving.
Adjusting his wings against his back, the Bird looked out towards the Dragon city as he spoke. "All Birds know how to do it. We're born into it."
"But Birds never share that kind of stuff with other races, you've always kept to yourselves." Wincing, he tucked his legs under himself and stood. "Why are you helping me?" The Bird lowered his head, stepping backwards through the grasses with his wings hunched oddly, but said nothing. Zack sighed, shaking his head. "I guess that's just how it is, huh?"
"You said yourself, there is always a set of prints in the snow."
Damn, The Hedgehog set his teeth, regretting what he'd said before. The last thing he needs is to get the delusions fourteen year olds do, and think we 'belong' together... "Look, you'll know when you find the person you've got to be with. That doesn't mean it's me. Live for yourself, okay?"
The avian snorted and pushed through the grasses towards the city. "That's not our nature."
"Saving complete strangers is?" Zack stumbled through the darkness, his feet hitting the dried dirt outside of the grasses with a hollow thudding sound. The night was clear now, without the Winds, and the moon reflected down on the Bird's backside, shimmering off the dark smears on his hindclaws. Clenched in the Hedgehog's claws, the Stone seemed to have stopped its ceaseless pounding at being taken from the earth, and now lay quiet and cold. The Bird was offering no reply. Sighing, Zack looked up from the ground to the avian. "Haven't you got a name?"
A quiver ran along the Bird's feathers, raising them in a wave. "People like me don't have them."
Zack snorted, catching up to the Bird who stood, stopped in the clearing before the gate. "That's bull. I'm not going to just keep calling you 'Bird' all the time. And you had to have a name at some point. Even Birds use names."
"It doesn't belong to me anymore," He paused, gazing over his shoulder. "Why do I need one, anyway? I don't call you by your name."
The Hedgehog rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration, standing beside the Bird. There was a sort of pathetic lethargy to the avian's voice when he spoke about his species, but there was no way that Zack could know why. "We've been in the middle of nowhere for three days, and we're the only people here. 'Course you don't use my name here. But we're going in there," He waved a claw at the gates, which loomed like a tunnel in front of them, the wood black under the wan light. "There's going to be Dragons everywhere, and you're we're going to need to be able to get eacother's attention." The Bird's eyes glinted at him, but still no reply. "Fine, I'll give you one then."
Feathers fluffed on end at that. "You can't just give someone another name, that's just not-"
"You said you haven't got one anymore, and I'm not going to just keep calling you 'you.' So deal with it." He looked upwards, towards the moon that stood bulky in the sky, blue-white like a saucer. "It's a clear night...How do Birds name eachother?" The Avian shrugged his feathers, taking awkward steps forward as the Hedgehog walked. "Not going to tell me, huh? Well...You believe in meaningful names, right?" Another shrug, and silence. "How about Cloud?"
The Bird lowered his head and looked away towards the grasses surrounding them, sighing in defeat. "Fine...I don't care."
Zack couldn't help but smile slightly to himself as they approuched the gate, the Bird was such a strange creature. They weren't the same race, he was going to have to remember, or it was going to continue to smack him upside the head when he wasn't looking in that direction. The races kept primarily to themselves, and it was only extreme situations- or extreme weirdos- that crossed the cultural taboos. Right now, Zack wasn't exactly sure which he was...but the Bird seemed to be driven by something else.
Although too large to open on their own, the gate was locked and guarded after the night Winds tore through. The Hedgehog and the Bird had only to reach the solid weatherbeaten surface before a spurt of fire from above warned them back. Zack, hand still clasped over his eye, reached out and caught a handful of the feathers along Cloud's back, steadying himself as he backpedaled. The Stone intertwined between fingers and plumage, digging into his palm. Pacing atop the wall, smoke curling from her lips, a dragon lashed her tail at them both angrily. Her eyes followed them as she stalked back and forth, the moon reflecting off her nigh-silver scales.
"The gate's closed, go back."
Zack could feel the Bird shrinking backwards, trying to pull out from under his grip and retreat. He tightened his claws and looked up, teeth gritted. "This is an emergency, there's something strange going on out in the woods-"
The Dragon snorted, a small spurt of flame licking from her nostrils. "Strange? I'll say. A Bird and a Hedgehog, crawling around after the Winds, a hundred miles from any shelter? What kind of magic are you playing at, Mud Worm?" She twirled the strange bladed weapon held in her claws, and pointed it at them. Cloud shrunk further against the Hedgehog's side.
Zack felt his spikes raise up in response to the Dragon's insult. "Look, you idiotic Fire Lizard, maybe you don't see danger when it's staring you in the face, but the Striped Ones are out there with something that's got great power," He ignored the fact that the Dragon had stopped pacing, and was now standing, her eyes slitted and smoke billowing from her nostrils with each breath. "More power than you stupid Dragons understand. They're going to abuse the hell out of it and come for you too, unless you do some-"
The Dragon guard had had enough of the Hedgehog's inconsiquential ramblings. With a sound like leather being whipped taut in the wind, her wings spread and the Saurian leapt from the wall, diving down towards the intruders with her weapon clutched at her underside, a trained formation.
Blue light shattered the night air. Bright and burning as the winter sun off the snow, it exploded from within Zack's clenched hand and expanded outwards in a dome. Cloud let out a shriek, tried to tear away, but Zack's claws held their grip and the Avian could only stumble and slip, hitting the ground with a rough thud. Flying headlong into the light, the Dragon was bowled backwards, blinded and singed. The light, as spontaniously as it had chosen to appear, began to drift apart like fog clearing in the sunlight, slowly leaving the air dark until it was gone. The ground at Zack's feet was left raked and smoothed by the untouchable force, he and the Bird at the epicenter. He could see the Dragon struggling to right herself against the wall, her arm held against her eyes and cloths singed black. Cloud was at his feet, half fallen, panting hard.
Between the Bird's back and his claws, the Terra Stone was humming violently enough that he could feel it reverbrating through his claws and deep into his spine. He was certain the Bird could feel it as well.
There was a wet sound as the Dragon spit, black saliva smearing the ground. A hand still sheilding her eyes, she looked at the fallen Bird and the half-blind Hedgehog. "What...what did you do?"
Zack's eye was burning, paining him like small slivers of metal slowly burrowing into his flesh. The vibrating of the Stone only made it worse, and his voice showed it, ragged and course. "It's what the Striped Ones have," he growled at her.
The Dragon inched along the wall, her spine flat against the blocks and hand still against her eyes, wings crunched awkwardly. Her voice was shaken. With her left clawed hand, she scratched an erratic series on the wood of the door before letting her arm fall. "The Dragon Council," she rasped at them. "You'll be taken to see our Council."
Muscle strung out over a skeleton, a golem with no soul and no existance beyond that of its command would have made a sound more welcoming than the deep, screeching squeal of the gate's hinges. The sound pushed past teeth, down the throat on needle sharp nails and slithered through the stomach before it ended. Beyond the gate, eyeless faces in the night light, the buildings of the Dragon city gaped blindly at the Hedgehog and Bird as they staggered slowly over the threshhold and entered a foreign land.